Monica Roberts at TransGriot is exploring the future of the trans* movement: “One of the things I was pondering recently was triggered by me seeing a pic of a five year old trans girl. I began to ponder what her Trans World that we 2K10’s activists are fighting tooth and
Continue readingTag: Decolonialism
Dented Blue Mercedes: Uganda passes its Anti-Homosexuality Bill
Uganda has passed its Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009. A Parliamentary spokesperson, Helen Kawesa, has confirmed it. The bill now goes to Ugandan President Yowari Museveni, for a signature. Museveni previously said he was not in favour of the bill, but he can’t stop it constitutionally — only delay it at best.
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: Uganda passes its Anti-Homosexuality Bill
Uganda has passed its Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009. A Parliamentary spokesperson, Helen Kawesa, has confirmed it. The bill now goes to Ugandan President Yowari Museveni, for a signature. Museveni previously said he was not in favour of the bill, but he can’t stop it constitutionally — only delay it at best.
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: Reblog: A Statement of Trans-Inclusive Feminism and Womanism
This is how you decolonize activism. A wide swath of people have demonstrated how to decolonize activism: not with negativity, but with constructivity. The following is being reblogged from Feminists Fighting Transphobia, and you will need to follow the link to see the ever-increasing number of signatories who have signed
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: Using scripture to rationalize slavery by the one percent
I grew up in a Pentecostal church, so I remember the beginnings of some of the dominionist doctrines that characterize far right faith groups today. There was never any one principal compendium of theology that every church got behind (just as there’s no single denomination in the dominionist movement, and
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: Doing something about anti-gay lobbying in Africa
If you’ve frequented any LGBT media at all, you’ve heard about Uganda’s proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill (often referred to as the “Kill the Gays Bill”), and possibly other anti-gay legislative bills that have been debated in African nations. Perhaps you’ve signed on to petitions directed to various governments to urge them
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: Violence is almost never an acceptable response. Neither is rationalizing it.
In August 2012, Floyd Lee Corkins entered the Family Research Council (FRC) headquarters and opened fire, injuring a security guard as he was tackled — fortunately, before he could cause any more damage. Periodically, I see people who I otherwise respect trying to dismiss the incident as insignificant, or even
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: On Persecution Complexes and Rage
The interplay of rage and persecution complexes works to shape trans, LGB — and in fact all — struggles against oppression. It can become an eternal feedback loop that can stymie any attempt to move progressive causes forward, if it succeeds in establishing its circuitous pattern. This translates to many
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: Leslie Feinberg arrested in solidarity with CeCe McDonald
What first struck me about Leslie Feinberg is hir commitment to fighting oppression on a universal scale, rather than just in a cliquish self-focused manner. This means recognizing where our needs correspond and intersect, and characteristically parallel causes like race and sex, or reproductive rights and genital reassignment surgery access.
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: Parsing Hate: The motivation behind the “Transsexual Registration Act”
On December 10th, Monica at TransGriot pointed to a Facebook Group advocating for the creation of a “Transsexual Registration Act.” The creator of that page and the idea he presents are fringe enough that we typically don’t dignify them with attention, but sometimes it’s important to point to these things
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: In Defense of Affirming Christians
This post is long overdue. It really is. I’ve made this distinction in my blog before and also in comment threads, but it keeps coming up and requires a post of its own. When I decry some of the radical and unhinged rhetoric that comes from some people who use
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: The Occupy Calgary story you’re not seeing elsewhere.
“Nothing to see here. Nothing to see here.” Until the last couple days, that had been the mood in Calgary, as the Occupy Wall Street (#ows) movement seemed far from many peoples’ minds. Sure, by now, everyone’s seen the graphs coming out about American inequality that show 1% of that population controlling an exponentially widening
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: If all the Occupy movement accomplishes is…
If all the Occupy movement accomplishes is to remind a public that protests and activism aren’t merely something that “fringe activists” do, and If all the Occupy movement accomplishes is to politically re-energize a public that has largely grown too apathetic to vote, and If all the Occupy movement accomplishes is to remind society that
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: Decolonizing Trans As Allies
I’ve mentioned alliance when dissecting the problems with umbrella thinking in transsexual and gender diverse activism, in “The Death of the ‘Transgender’ Umbrella” and “Why The Umbrella Failed.” It’s easy to pull something apart — the more challenging question now becomes: how do we do activism if not as a single umbrella community? Why do
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